Monday, December 05, 2016

A letter from Penzey's Spices reveals they are fully SJW-converged. Also, that they are amusingly delusional. The amusing thing is that they think anyone was paying any attention to their "stand", and that they think they've proved "Donald Trump simply has no one supporting his views for America".What it really means is that no one is paying attention to their idiot politics. Yet.

Dear CEO,

Please give us a moment to share something we hope you will find very valuable.

Our customers come from all walks of life. The kindness of cooks knows no borders or divides. In the aftermath of the election, seeing the intentional damage inflicted on so many outside the white heterosexual male world, we raised our voice. We felt we had to. We did this because we are Penzeys. The Spice business is so intertwined with history that it's not really possible to have one without the other. It became clear to us that we are now in a moment history will long have its eyes upon. For the sake of our customers, and for the sake of future generations, we felt the time had come to stand on the right side of history.

And while the reasons for why we took a stand might be specific to our unique outlook, what we learned actually applies to all commerce in the United States. What we learned is that President-elect Donald Trump has no real support. Voters, sure, but no constituency. Running a campaign on "that horrible-terrible-woman who should be locked up," while at the same time working to raise fear of minorities among white voters with limited access to education, clearly achieved its goal. But none of it left Americans with any sense of connection to the candidate they actually voted for.

Willing to take a hit for what is right, we did what we did. In the two weeks since, online sales are up 59.9%, gift box sales up 135%. And we didn't have a catalog arrive in this window this year, while last year we had 1.1 million! Yes, maybe for the moment we have lost 3% of our customers because of the so-called "right wing firestorm." And, yes, they send emails of rage, and ALL CAPS, and bad language with the hope of creating the perception that they are bigger than they really are. But what we learned is that, in terms of retail spending, Donald Trump simply has no one supporting his views for America. He has no constituency.

America's Values, on the other hand, have a really sizable constituency, and that constituency moves quickly to support those that stand up for the values of America. If, as a company, you have values, now is the time to share them. You may well lose a chunk of your AM radio-listening customers, but if you really are honest and sincere, don't be surprised to see your promotions suddenly, finally, find active engagement with the Millennial generation.

And the time for this really is now. We understand all too well that, with the holidays, December is a tough month to get things done. We understand that a change in direction will not be easy, but you are where you are because you don't need things to be easy. If you wait until after the wheels come off the track for the incoming administration, this moment will have passed. And while there's no bad time to do the right thing, to do the right thing at the same time as others in your industry will work so much better than waiting until someone else has shown the way.

In this moment there is finally the real chance to unite our nation in our shared rejection of sexism, homophobia, and racism. This is your chance to stand up for America's values and make January a tent pole in your company's history. Opportunities to do the right thing at the time when doing the right thing makes all the difference come once in a lifetime. Make your history proud.

Watch their numbers about sales being "up" being bullshit. Of course sales are up around black friday if they're comparing to the month before (which I'm guessing they are, otherwise they would have clarified "compared to last year"). Losing 3% of their customers will hit them harder long run if that's the case. And I gather that number will grow, not diminish.

Make a list of all companies that are SJW converged so that we know to avoid them. I am not interested in buying any product or service from a company whose management does not respect my freedom of thought and expression.

I completely support Penzey's in their Social Justice narrative, and urge all SJW converged businesses to join in with Penzey. All converged businesses should, regardless of their market niche, go out of their way to offend normal Americans as much as they possibly can.

It's time for them to come out of the shadows, stand up in the sunlight, and be counted. It's time for them to tell all the rest of America exactly who they are.

Never heard of them and I regularly cook and help out with a competition BBQ team. I doubt any of their customers were aware of the "stand" they were taking. Now if the retailer's they are soliciting do start advertising their "stand" watch how fast their sales fall. I will note that in most industries a consistent 3% drop in sales is an all hands on deck affair.

Mind-boggling. That they have survived this long in business says to me they have only recently been SJW converged. Their recent temporary jump in sales(SJW troops rushing in to support) is immaterial as their slow but inevitable slide into oblivion begins. Enjoy the show. Buy more popcorn. This will only get better.

Really strong stand...from a spice shop that no one has heard of or cares about. Not sure what the best way is to cram it down their throat since they are so unimportant that you can't boycott because no one shops there.

Black Friday plus their limited time sale surely impacts this, but everyone is spending! They are trying to claim that Obama suddenly fixed the economy starting 11/9, with leftists spinning this as Obama's surge in the stock market and consumer spending. Everybody sat on their money for 60 days before the election, wondering if that would need to go toward bidding on various things that would be outlawed by Frau Clinton.

Never heard of these guys--and I live only a few minutes away. Not surprising in the least, however. That part of town has some pretty hardcore liberals. Most of which, as difficult as this may be to believe, are insulated from Atlanta's diversity by high real estate prices and rents.

But online sales is one thing. What's foot traffic looking like these days?

"Big advance is the mind killer. I will not advance. It is by the typewriter's clanging that I awaken thoughts. Awaken thoughts complete novels. It is by the completed novel I collect the check. I will not block, I will not block, I--"

"Daddy! Daddy wake up, wake up!"

John Scalzi shot up erect from his bed, , eyes startled from their sockets, his corpulently muscled torso bathed in sweat.

The Secret Alien King stared penetratingly into his alien princess daughter's incomprehendingly concerned and humid orbs. His home world. The world at the center of the galaxy, completely covered with a multimillion dollar lawn.

The Second Foundation. The world he must regain--regain, by writing to his deadline.

But every minute he sat in this room, his advance receeded. Every minute Vox squatted in the jungle, his deplorable dune advanced.

My son-in-law is a chef and I've never seen this brand in his kitchen, so I'm inconsiderate of Penzey's Spices and their likely bogus sales claims. But if that place becomes a safe space for thumb-sucking cry babies, I'm fine with that.

Niche market in high-disposable-income lifestyle locations. Hobby gourmet cooking is a big hobby among the upper middle class, the same lot that pays for French cooking ranges and shops at Williams-Sonoma. Status and virtue signalling probably will help them in their chosen market, which will do anything it can to separate themselves from the majority.

This may make sense, for them, as long as their market believes what it believes. Which barring extreme events, such that there no longer is a market for expensive spices anyway, will probably continue for the forseeable future.

What kinda of mark-up do you have to have to sell just spices from bricks and mortar stores these days? 1000% ? More? Googled them. There's actually one not to far from where I live. Never been in it. Never will be now.

It bummed me out when I read the CEO's idiocy. I have been a loyal Penzey's customer for over a decade. Heck, I've been an ambassador as much as I talk up that store. They really do have excellent products at excellent prices.

But as it turns out, the CEO's brother has an alternative store that gets its products sourced from the same places... so they should be nearly identical products, I hope.

This Wisc Penzey guy was in sufferable during the Scott Walker recalls. Fortunately, his sister runs a Milwaukee spice company as well, which happens to segregate vocation and politics: thespicehouse.com

All their talk about catalog mailings is meaningless. Who the hell looks at catalogs anymore? Why were they still mailing catalogs in such high numbers last year? That was just wasted margin. What do you want to bet that the money they were pouring into catalogs was instead poured into online marketing, which would be far more effective when done right.

Furthermore, their online sales are up 59% from what? That's suspiciously absent. From two weeks prior? You don't suppose, just maybe, that's because it's now the holiday season and people are buying a lot more gift boxes than they were 2 weeks ago? Why aren't they reporting year-on-year sales? Oh, that's right, because SJWAL.

On record as refusing to purchase from them ever again. Spice House is run by the Penzeys daughter, says politics ought not matter in biz...so, absent absolute declaration one way or t'other, I'll go to Spice House.

It's the rubbing shit in my face that I hate. They're not the only game in town, despite the Paleo/gluten free/hippie mama/you-can-be-foodie-too cred they've attempted to cultivate.

What the hell is he proposing other CEOs do? Write similar public letters calling for Trump voters to be punished for "the biggest act of racism in American history since Wallace stood in the schoolhouse doorway 53 years ago."?!

Randy wrote:I'm seeing a small heart within a large heart in their logo. Am I the only one?

Um hmm. And the disconnect at the bottom. Maybe it's just a lovey-dovey blood-red heart signthat just happens to look like it was drawn by a spirit-cooking psycho andthat just happens to look a lot like the Comet Ping Pong logothat just happens to look a lot like the pedo symbol.

Or maybe not, but it doesn't hurt to point this out as long as it cuts into their sales. Remember the Proctor & Gamble fiasco.

The facebook comments illustrate why 1) I will never sign up for facebook and 2) why the chasm between people who hurl "racist! racist!" with every comment and the rest of us is too wide to bridge; we'll never be able to coexist.

Truth be told, it is impossible to avoid every converged organization. Few eschew cell phones, and your choice largely between two horribly-managed corporations (APPL and GOOG.) All of Silicon Valley is stuffed with Goodthinkers.

I take heart from the fact that what was "stylish" before will be OUT OF STYLE going forward. Yes, the most zealous of the cultists will die before they'll change to parrot the new Narrative, but 1) their pets will help them with that, and 2) I think they actually will take themselves out of the shallow side of the gene pool.

The rest of today's SJW cheerleaders will change to the new Narrative no different than the woman who LOVES her Coach Purse will switch to Prada the moment the herd does so.

The call to "unite the nation" by declaring straight white men a new pariah caste: this is the height of dishonesty. If you include the women married into this pariah caste, as well as their mothers, sisters, and children, then you're talking about more than half the population. Unite the nation!

This might be the best elaboration I've seen of the leftism-as-fake-religion idea:

Penzys got the business as a hand-me-down from his parents, then split from his siblings to launch his catalog-driven shop.

But his siblings, who obviously listened when their parents raised them well, still own The Spice House. They would not think of insulting their customers this way - and if you go to www.thespicehouse.com and use the code NOPOLITICS, shipping on your 1st order is free.

Their stuff is good, and I highly recommend them if you're looking for reasonable Xmas gifts.

Ouch, d.c., coach to Prada, bit of a jump. Kors to Coach is more in line with most mid-to-upper class (and some lower class strivers) herd behavior. Even if they could, you can't go Prada, Hermes, Louboutin, Aigner, Chanel, without some serious cash, or at least a healthy dose of prudence and sense of future worth.

Fashion is either fast, acquisitive, trashable, and replaceable, or timeless, sensible, heirloom quality, and historic. You see which women consume which fashions, and while it does take some coin to buy in, an eye for quality and timelessness matters more than the daily and ever shifting trend.

I read that Welch's is on this bandwagon too. I'm sure I can find juice and jelly elsewhere - actually I've learned to make jelly myself lately from local produce and wild fruit (sloes and blackberries) growing around where I live. No GMOs or pesticides, either.

Never heard of them. But now that I have, I can avoid them.Given they're likely targeted demographic of customer, this could well have been a pretty sharp play to increase their awareness among potential customers, and goodwill among existing customers.

Sure, they'll piss off a lot of Americans. They'll still get a black stare and a shrug from most Americans. But when your targeted customer base is converged and you're a small player, braying convergence platitudes yourself isn't necessarily a bad strategy.

If you don't want to get raped, then buy your spices at the Dekalb Farmer's market or Patel Brothers... Penzi's is literally 3-5 times more expensive on their spices..

My boyfriend and I were shocked by Penzi's prices but we also realized that the fellow patrons in the shop seemed to be the 50-something Sandy Springs suburban elite types and... so they can at least add some spice to their dishes.

tl;dr. If you don't want you, or your children, or your nation to get raped, then buy your spices somewhere besides Penzi.

Penzeys message being only backwards alt right conservatards shun his goods, so no harm no foul. All proper thinking goodbrained truly enlightened foodies who cherish and relish the great cuisines diversity has brought us will support him forever.

And damn those freaks who cannot appreciate Aleppo pepper. If they could, their politics wouldn't be in question, would they?

@25, @43 - The logo is a heart within a heart separated by a plausibly deniable white line as if from being colored imperfectly with a crayon. It's more visibly child-related than the real pedo symbol. If they put that as their logo, maybe there are some other tells .... "make January a tent pole in your company's history". Hmmm.

I'll bet the spice business gives excuses to travel to places where children might be procured.

Last I checked, the millenials don't have much in the way of disposable income, 'cause they have no jobs in the 'bama 'conomy. Never heard of Penzies before. But I have now, and I'll never forget it, nor will I ever buy from them.

Up until now I had no idea you were an SJW converged company which worked against Western values. However, thanks to your policy of taking off the m,ask and frankly spitting on your customers, I can safely add you to the list of corporations which I will not be supporting with my business again.

While it is a bit disconcerting to discover how many businesses are frankly parasitical and feeding off Western civilization, it is also comforting to know that I as a consumer also have a large number of pro Western, for civilization business which I can support instead.

I stopped going to the DeKalb Co GA farmer's market, all they had working there were Somalians and they were always rude and couldn't stand America or Americans, not one of them would even smile at customers, white, black or asian

I don't know anything about spices, but if you want home improvement supplies shop at Home Depot. The owner is a big-time Trump supporter and the CEO says he wanted to open more stores provided they had a "business-friendly administration," which isn't referring to Hillary, lol.

I hit the bulk section of my grocery store for herbs and spices. The rotation is fast, and they are cheaper, you buy only what you need and at my store anyway, the selection is huge.+++++++++++++++++++Penzy's is a big deal for folks who like to cook, or need unusual spices and herbs and cannot get them locally. Thanks for the alternative source.

@53 the promo code is expired, but it's pretty cool that it existed. I wonder if it pre-dates the Penzey's statements. I wonder what Thanksgiving was like for this family this year...

One person sends me Penzey's as gifts regularly. I'll have to politely steer her in another direction. I do like a few of their spice blends a lot, but there's nothing really special about the regular spices. I prefer M&B.

OK. The SJW finally win. I was enjoying my trump Train ride, giddy with the narcotic rush of winning YUGELY. Then this. I gotta be honest, this really got to me. I mean at a soul searching , rock bottom,a gut wrenching awakening of what I've done. You see, how the f*&% can I enjoy spice when there are people who are actively organizing mobs to round up all non-whites for extermination? This is not what America and the enjoyment of overpriced spices are about. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

Glad to hear the Spice House is non-converged. Their Lakeshore Drive seasoning is to die for.

I have to wonder what kind of worm-brain parasite would convince a business owner that taking a loud stand on politics would be a good idea. For one thing, it makes your virtue-signaling seem like a cheap marketing gimmick and secondly, it makes you look like a presumptuous jerk who is only interesting in hiring and serving people who agree with ALL of his half-baked, cock-a-mamie ideas.

If I were to buy a hot dog from a hot dog vendor in the street, I don't want to have to stand there while he tells me about the wonders of Scientology. Why in the flying fart would I ever put up with any other business owner doing essentially the same thing?

@113, If your clientele is thick with wealthy goodwhites, I could see it paying off in the short term. Get them all to send in a big order for Christmas to stick it to Trump (somehow), and it could make up for the customers they lose.

Problem is, that kind of thing isn't very sustainable. The emotionalism that drives someone to spend an extra $100 to feel righteous won't last, and their customers will be getting similar appeals from their other leisure item catalog retailers. Good luck to them making the same pitch next year.

Bill Penzey, that leftist buttmunch, thinks that all Trump supporters are racists.

Unfortunately for Bill, according to his bizzaro leftist definitions a minority *cannot* be racist. Since minorities voted for Trump in higher numbers that have been seen in a long time, we have minorities that are both not racist and not not racist. That's some next level shit right there.

Of course, the other option for Bill is that those dumb vibrants didn't really understand what they were doing and just pecked at the Trump button like the trained chicken at the state fair. Hell, it's amazing they even managed to find the polling station! This option doesn't sound racist at all right?

I canceled my catalog and email lists when I saw the first "cooking trumps racism" email. What a douche.

Health & safety warning:This spice blend should not be prepared by individuals who do not have access to properly fitting industrial safety goggles, industrial fine particulate respirators, thick rubber gloves, and for some especially allergic people, a full-body hazardous materials or "encounter" suit. All of these precautions should be considered before attempting to make this spice blend.

Preparation:After complying with health and safety warnings, add all of the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and combine evenly. Add portions of the mixture to a blender or pulveriser, pulsing gently at first to break up the larger pieces until all items combine into a coarse powdered blend.

Storage:Store in an air-tight glass jar with durable rubber seals. This mixture is very hygroscopic.

Advice for vegetarians:Suitable for less annoying vegetarians, but may cause smug vegans to combust spontaneously.

Suggested usage:Spoon liberally over the food of liberals, spoon conservatively over the food of conservatives.

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